Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja was sentenced today for making donations to former first lady Kim Keon Hee. Yun Young-ho, former head of the Unification Church’s global headquarters, was also given six months. Critics slam the political nature of the sentence and call for religious freedom.
South Korea’s foreign policy intrudes directly into its domestic politics. The opposition slams the government for holding joint military exercises with the United States and Japan, accusing the conservative government of favouring Japan’s return to the peninsula. The interim leader of the conservative People Power Party counterattacked saying that the opposition’s statements echo those of North Korea.
Today's headlines: Joint military exercise by Tokyo and Seoul (with the US) in response to North Korean launches; Vientiane suspends mining operations at a Chinese-owned gold mine; cholera continues to strike in Syria, first case of contagion in neighbouring Lebanon; Moscow's Orthodox churches propse a liturgy for soldiers engaged in the war on Ukraine.
Today's news: panic among South Koreans over Seoul's failed missile launch crashed to the ground. Major gold-supplying banks cut shipments to India. Since the military coup 145 Burmese, mostly members of the Nld, have died in prison; since the beginning of the war Russian oligarchs have lost more than 94 billion Euro.
This is the fifth and most provocative launch in the last 10 days. While Japan warned its population to see shelter, the missile fell into the Pacific after travelling 4,500 kilometres. North Korea’s rhetoric against South Korea is increasingly harsh.
In the last 15 years , the number of foreigners in the country has grown fourfold. The bishop of Incheon released a message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which is marked today by the Churches of the whole world. “Our hearts and actions are what God wants us to do in order to further build a great future in which no one is left out,” the prelate writes.
Adopted under Syngman Rhee's authoritarian rule, the law provides for the imprisonment of anyone expressing sympathy for North Korea; it leaves ample room to charge people of conspiracy. The Constitutional Court is examining 11 petitions submitted by individuals and district courts.
Today's headlines: Phnom Penh raises minimum wage to €203 per month, this is not enough for trade unions; students at a business school in Wuhan protest against power cuts and lockdowns for Covid; over 55% of online content of an 'Islamophobic' nature comes from India; Seoul aims to return to pre-pandemic normality by next spring; after Putin's military mobilisation, the hunt is on for tickets to flee the country.
Starting in 2000, family reunions had become a way to promote inter-Korean dialogue. But in the last decade, this became increasingly rare with the last reunion held in 2018. Currently, in South Korea about 43,700 people are registered with the government's reunification programme, 85 per cent of them are over 70.
Taiwan’s population has increased in the past two months, but on an annual basis, the trend is negative. By 2025, one in five Taiwanese will be over 65 years old. South Korea continues to have the lowest fertility rate in the world. Japan too faces a demographic challenge. At its current rate of decline, China will have less than half of its current population by 2100.
According to official government data, migration to the countryside, especially by young couples, grew by 5.6 per cent in 2021, the highest rate in a decade. Koreans call this trend "kwichon", caused by high city housing prices, pandemic-related telework, and growing frustration with the ruthless competition in the labour market that has led some to choose farming.
South Korea announces huge contracts with Poland for tanks and howitzers at the NATO summit in Madrid. South Korean companies will also work with Russia’s Rosatom to build reactors for Egypt’s nuclear power plant in El Dabaa. President Yoon wants to sell at least 10 new nuclear plants by 2030.
In the interview aired tonight by Seoul's national television station a blessing "for all Koreans: Christian and non-Christian, South and North." "You who have suffered so much from war: work for peace." The invitation to Korean priests: "You have so many priestly vocations in your country; think how good it is to go beyond its borders to become missionaries." To young people: "Never tire of doing good."
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